What does a CPA firm have in common with Apple and MIT?

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

Steve Jobs convinced Steve Wozniak to help him start Apple Computers in the mid-1970s.  He knew there had to be a better way of doing business in the field of technology.  The success of Apple is built on his vision.

Put People First
Fourteen years earlier in 1962, two other innovative entrepreneurs also set out to change the way of doing business in their industry.  Jim Kaufman and Jay Rossin envisioned a CPA firm that was truly different from the others. They wanted to build a workplace where people wanted to come to work. If employees feel joyful, challenged and fulfilled, they believed, they’ll provide the best possible service for clients.  This vision led to profits and growth for the business, now in its 50^th year.

Share the Vision
To realize his goal, Jobs assembled people who shared his vision and values.  At Kaufman, Rossin & Co., that common purpose is the basis for a strong company culture.

“For optimum success and power of people in an organization, you must have goals and values that are clearly defined and commonly shared with a culture that supports it,” Kaufman told 300+ team members at his recent semi-annual seminar. 

The central atrium at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California

Foster Personal Connections
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s famous Building 20 became known as one of the most innovative spaces in the country.  Completely by happenstance, the building’s design and amalgam of experts promoted collaboration.  Walls were torn down and offices were constantly shuffled around to make space for more big thinkers during World War II.  Professors of all disciplines mingled with students in the long corridors of the building. People interacted, shared, and created like nowhere else! 

Jobs also saw the power in fostering personal connections to spark creativity and serendipitous problem-solving. As CEO of the budding animation studio Pixar, he designed the company’s headquarters with a central atrium housing essential services, so employees would meet, interact and brainstorm.

Likewise, Kaufman, Rossin’s main office in Coconut Grove encourages employees to meet in the central kitchen, gym, community center and other common areas. These chance meetings spark conversation, creativity and collaboration.

While modern technology makes it increasingly easy to communicate via email, text and social media, Kaufman reminded employees that there is no substitute for face-to-face interactions when it comes to developing and nurturing valuable personal connections with co-workers, clients, and other members of the community.

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Lisa Cawley Ruiz is a brand journalist at Kaufman, Rossin’s Miami office. Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country. Lisa can be reached at lruiz@kaufmanrossin.com. Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn.

Create STRONG passwords that you won’t forget!

Monday, June 11th, 2012

Too often we are expected to create random, complicated passwords with special characters and lots of restrictions. Especially now, with all the security breaches, we recommend the following method to help you develop passwords that are strong and easy to create and remember:

For website passwords, use the first four or five letters of the website to start the password. For example: 

For added security, add the @ symbol and a number (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0) to the first letters of the website. For example:

Pick a phrase that is easy for you to remember, but that no one else will be able to attribute to you. For example:

Passphrase: “My Wife’s Birthday Is April Twenty-Fifth Nineteen Sixty Six”

Use the first letter of each phrase to form an abbreviation. For example:

m – My
w – Wife’s
b – Birthday
i – Is
a – April
t – Twenty-
f – Fifth
n – Nineteen
s – Sixty
s – Six

Abbreviated pass phrase: mwbiatfnss

Add the passphrase to the first letters of the website, the @ symbol and number. For example:

Following this pattern will help you develop strong passwords that are easy to create and remember. Remember that at a minimum the passwords must:

• contain at least 1 letter
• contain at least 1 number or punctuation mark
• be at least 8 characters long

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Jorge Rey, CISA, CISM, CGEIT is an associate principal and the director of information security & compliance for Kaufman, Rossin & Co. Kaufman, Rossin is one of the top CPA firms in Florida. Jorge can be reached at jrey@kaufmanrossin.com.

Using payroll service for QuickBooks 2009? It’s time to upgrade!

Friday, June 8th, 2012

Payroll service for QuickBooks 2009 will be discontinued on June 30, 2012, and all payroll subscriptions for customers with QuickBooks 2009 will be inactivated.

On July 1, 2012, QuickBooks 2009 will no longer automatically calculate correct payroll taxes or provide payroll tax forms. Live technical support and add-on business services such as payroll, credit card processing, QuickBooks Email, and online banking will also be discontinued.

However, if you don’t use live technical support or any of the add-on services, and are happy with your current version of QuickBooks, you can continue to use it.

Products for which services will be discontinued are:

• QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Simple Start 2009
• QuickBooks for Mac 2009
• QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 9
• QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2009
• Credit Card Processing Kit 2009
• Invoice Manager 2009

We encourage you to upgrade your QuickBooks software as soon as possible to minimize disruption to your business. If you have any concerns, please contact your Kaufman, Rossin professional or one of our QuickBooks ProAdvisors.

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Lisa K. Grossman is an associate principal at Kaufman, Rossin & Co., and a leader in the Firm’s QuickBooks consulting practice. Lisa is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Florida and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country. She can be reached a lgrossman@kaufmanrossin.com.

Top 10 reasons you should update your estate plan before the end of 2012!

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

1. Tax exemption is higher now than ever, but not for long.
   The current estate, gift and generation skipping tax exemption is currently $5,120,000 ($10,240,000) per couple. This is higher than it has ever been and is scheduled to drop to only $1,000,000 (only $2,000,000 per couple) in 2013 unless Congress and the President can reach an agreement. This may be a use it or lose it!
2. Your plan may disinherit your spouse!
   Do your current estate planning documents include a formula for determining the amounts passing to heirs or trusts for heirs based upon the exemption? With the currently high exemptions, your plan may disinherit your spouse!
3. Is your business safe from creditors or predators?
   Do you have a succession plan for your business? Does your plan include the use of asset protection trusts funded up to the amount of your exemption to safeguard your business from your heirs’ creditors, spouses and predators?
4. Interest rates are historically low!
   The interest rate that the IRS requires to be used for interfamily loans, sales to family trusts, and other planning techniques is at historical lows. The current required interest rate for a 9 year loan made in June 2012 is only 1.07%.
5. Discounting the value of assets is still available.
   Discounted values for lack of control and lack of marketability for interests in Corporations, Partnerships and LLCs are still available for interfamily transactions. There has been much talk about limiting such discounts, but currently, discounting is still available for planning purposes.  When discounting the value of assets by 33%, the effective interest rate on a note as mentioned in item four above drops to only 0.7%!
6. If you’re feeling generous – there’s no estate or gift tax!
   If you are currently giving or planning to give significant sums of money or assets to your favorite charity, the current low interest rates allow you to help your charity and transfer assets to your heirs with no estate or gift tax. Ask about the use of a charitable lead trust.
7. Consider a Roth IRA conversion for estate tax savings.
   If you have a large IRA or retirement plan as part of your taxable estate, which is in excess of the exemption, you should consider a Roth IRA conversion. This will reduce your taxable estate and provide years of tax free cash flow to heirs.
8. Avoid aggressive taxation on your vacation home.
   Do you have a vacation home outside Florida that will be subject to state estate tax and the costs of an ancillary probate administration in that state? Simple steps can avoid the often very aggressive taxation of these homes.
9. Is your life insurance subject to estate taxes?
   An irrevocable life insurance trust can avoid the estate tax and provide asset protection for your heirs.
10. Do you have a family member who has special health needs?
    You may want to consider unique provisions in your estate planning documents.

Don’t wait until the end of the year to get started.  Do it now!

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John R. Anzivino, CPA is in charge of Kaufman, Rossin’s estate, trust and exempt organization practice. Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the state and offers a wide variety of services for high-net worth individuals. John can be reached at janzivino@kaufmanrossin.com

Another IRS email scam

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

The IRS will never initiate contact via email. If you receive an email claiming to be from the IRS, it is a SCAM!

Below is a screenshot of one of the scam emails being sent.

If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to contact your Kaufman, Rossin professional.

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Scott F. Berger is a tax and accounting services principal at Kaufman, Rossin’s Boca Raton office.  Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country.  He can be reached at sberger@kaufmanrossin.com.

QuickBooks – There’s an app for that too!

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

Are you an app lover? Do you use apps for more than just games?

If so, you’ll appreciate that QuickBooks has the capability to integrate with numerous applications to simplify billing, invoicing, customer management, financial management, and mobile accounting. One of our favorite apps is Bill.com.

Bill.com is a paperless bill pay service that integrates with both desktop QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online. If you’re trying to organize payables, gain greater control over cash flow, and gain access to bill pay functions on your smart phone, then this app may be great for you.  Even if your accounting firm pays your bills for you, this app will help you get clear, instant access to your records.

How it works:

• You get a dedicated email address or fax number to send in copies of your invoices. They’re all archived in a secure, web-based portal.
• You can maintain proper internal controls by having separate staff upload, approve, and pay bills.
• Payments are sent via ACH, if accepted by your vendor, or via paper checks.
• If a paper check is required, funds are first transferred to Bill.com.  Then, a check is cut from Bill.com’s account. This lessens your exposure to check fraud.
• Users have access to a cash flow calendar allowing them to easily schedule, postpone, and project expenses.
• All accounting information exports to QuickBooks, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry.
• It works with any computer or mobile device. This provides a great solution for owners who travel frequently and want to stay on top of their expenses or retain the authority to pay bills themselves.

This is a trusted service, recommended by the AICPA’s CPA2BIZ division.  It’s gotten very strong reviews from the QuickBooks community for both its functionality and user support.  A package for up to 5 users is $49.00 per month plus $0.99 for each paper check required.

App savvy professionals can get more information at http://www.bill.com/.

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Meredith Tucker is an accounting services manager at  Kaufman, Rossin’s Boca Raton office, and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in the country, offers  QuickBooks training and consulting services. She can be reached at mtucker@kaufmanrossin.com.

ALERT: You may have paid too much sales tax!

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

Sales and use tax rules are complex and can be confusing.  It’s surprising how often entrepreneurs pay more taxes than they’re required.  Many never even know they overpaid thousands!

If your business is in the manufacturing, hospitality, or healthcare industry then you may qualify!

Our experts find overpayments and recover them.

Our State & Local Tax professionals will analyze your payments and see whether you have a refund due.  We look at your fixed asset and consumable purchases over the past three years, and often find vendor overcharges of sales tax, or sales/use tax paid on nontaxable transactions. Then we file a refund claim with the State to recover the overpaid tax, or we prepare a report so you can recover the overpayments by taking credits against future sales tax payments.

It works.  We’ve found significant refunds for many clients.

For example:

• We recovered approximately $130,000 in overcharged sales tax for a South Florida resort hotel.
• We recovered approximately $250,000 in overpaid sales/use tax for a Central Florida manufacturing company.

Here’s the best part: it costs nothing unless we succeed.

The work is performed on a contingency fee basis. There is no cost to you unless we find an overpayment and get your money back.  Our fee is paid out of the cash we recover.  There is zero impact on your budget.

Clients find our experience invaluable.

This time-consuming work requires a significant base of knowledge about the rules and how they may be applied.  It takes detail orientation and patient attention.  Kaufman, Rossin has built a team of professionals whose technical skills and abilities in this area are unmatched.

• We have 15 years of FL Dept. of Revenue (“FDOR”) experience
• We have extensive contacts within the FDOR.
• We started doing this at the Big Four, but chose to bring this real value to entrepreneurs at Kaufman, Rossin a dozen years ago.

Want to know if you overpaid – and get it back?

For additional information on our State & Local Tax (SALT) Practice, please contact:

• Dan Wagner – 561.620.1718 – dwagner@kaufmanrossin.com
• Or your Kaufman, Rossin account professional.

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Dan Wagner is an associate tax principal in Kaufman, Rossin’s SALT practice.  Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country. He can be reached at dwagner@kaufmanrossin.com.

QuickBooks Tip: Set a closing date password – you won’t regret it!

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

When can you set a closing date?
You can set a closing date on a daily, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis.

Why do you need a closing date?

• To restrict access to final numbers once a period is closed.
• To prevent staff from adding, editing or deleting transactions after the books are closed.
• To prevent changes to transactions after the information is sent to your accountant.
• To help prevent fraud.

What does a closing date do?

• Warns you when a transaction on or before the closing date is being changed.
• Tracks all changes.
• Prints a closing date exception report.

How do you set a closing date in QuickBooks?

• Login as the Admin.
• Click Company, Set Closing Date to open the Accounting, Company Preferences dialog.
• Click the Set Date/Password button. The Set Closing Date and Password dialog displays.
• Enter a closing date and optional password. You might want to discuss this date with your accountant first.
• Click OK to accept the closing date and optional password.

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Lori Bucci is an accounting services manager at Kaufman, Rossin’s Miami office, and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in the country, offers QuickBooks training and consulting services. She can be reached at lbucci@kaufmanrossin.com.

What’s New in QuickBooks 2012?

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

The program enhancements for QuickBooks 2012 can be divided into two areas:

1. Enhancements for the user
2. Enhancements for their accountants

Enhancements for the user are designed to make day-to-day accounting easier and provide better information about your business. We have listed many of the User Enhancements that apply to most versions of QuickBooks below.

• Refresh Excel Data – provides user better integration with Microsoft Excel
• Contributed Reports – allows user to share report templates with other QuickBooks users
• Lead Center – allows user to manage sales prospects within QuickBooks and convert them easily to customers
• Calendar View – allows user to view a calendar layout of a company’s important transactions (invoices, billing, reminders)
• Global To Do’s – allows user more access to and flexibility with their To-Do lists
• Document Center – users can scan and store attached documents
• Memorized Transactions – improved to enable user to select transactions before entry
• Batch Timesheets – allows user to enter the same timesheet information for multiple employees
• Batch Invoicing for Time and Expenses – allows users to invoice several customers for time and expenses at one time
• One Click Transactions – allows users to create a payment or credit memo from the contents of an invoice in one step; also can now pay a bill in one step
• Improved Shipping Manager – allows user to integrate with USPS
• Company File Search – allows users expanded search features
• Integrated Help – provides users enhanced help features
• Improved Condense Data – improves the clean up data/condense data feature
• Easy Setup – provides users with an express start up for new QuickBooks files

If you have any questions or need assistance with QuickBooks, please contact Lisa K. Grossman or any of our QuickBooks ProAdvisors.

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Lisa K. Grossman is an associate principal at Kaufman, Rossin & Co., and a leader in the Firm’s QuickBooks consulting practice. Lisa is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Florida and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country. She can be reached a lgrossman@kaufmanrossin.com.

Is the IRS targeting you?

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

If you make more than $1 million, watch out.  Seems like the IRS is targeting wealthy taxpayers.  8.4% of taxpayers making more than $1 million were audited last year, compared to 1.1% of the general population. For those with more than $10 million, the audit rate was %18.4.

Barron’s recently posted an article online called “How the IRS Is Probing the Rich.” “…Folks with fat bank accounts, pricey properties, big incomes, large investments and complex tax profiles” should be on the lookout. The federal government is trying to recoup some of the billions in taxes that is estimated due, but not collected.

The new “wealth unit” may have you in their sights. Red flags:

• property transfers
• certain investment losses
• home-loan interest deductions
• foreign income
• big spenders

The IRS is getting a nice return on their investment. The IRS estimates that for every dollar they spend on enforcement, they bring in as much as $10.

This article is definitely worth browsing, especially if you fall into the category of “rich.”

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Scott F. Berger is a tax principal at Kaufman, Rossin’s Boca Raton office.  Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country.  He can be reached at sberger@kaufmanrossin.com.